Alcoholic beverages, especially wine, are generally packaged in bottles with a standard capacity (75 cL) for the commercialization thereof. Such bottles contain a relatively large amount of beverage corresponding to the capacity of several glasses. The selling price of an individual bottle can be relatively high, in particular for quality wines that have been aged in the bottle for a certain number of years.
However, it is known that wine, like other liquids or alcoholic beverages, is sensitive to contact with air, especially the oxygen content in air. Once the bottle is uncorked and the wine placed in contact with the oxygen in the air, the wine oxidizes quite quickly and the organoleptic qualities thereof deteriorate. It is therefore important to consume the contents of a bottle rapidly after the opening thereof.
Due to the cost of bottles and the short shelf life thereof once opened, producers, wine boutiques and other wine sellers are reluctant to open the bottles in order to allow potential buyers to taste the wines. Buyers must therefore choose the bottles they wish to acquire without having previously tasted the contents or must have the opportunity to participate in infrequent commercial tasting events. Buyers may well hesitate before investing sometimes large sums for the purchase of bottles, on the basis of the information given on the label, recommendations from a seller or the rating of a critic.
The availability to sellers, and the potential buyers thereof, of samples of these bottles of wine would be a real advantage. It would make it possible for potential buyers to taste small amounts of wine or other alcoholic beverages, on site or at home, for the consumer or professional, without having to open a bottle thereof. Said sample, of a lower cost, could then be graciously offered by the seller or sold at a low price. The cost of mailing samples is also much lower than that for a 75 cl bottle.
The buyer could thus form a personal opinion concerning the quality of a wine before proceeding with the purchase of one or more bottles thereof. The buyer could also taste several vintages of the same wine and compare the maturation state thereof depending upon the year, in order to choose the one preferred. Such tastings, prior to the act of purchase, are very important in an area such as the sale of wine or other alcoholic beverages, an area wherein the assessment of quality is very subjective and depends upon personal taste.
It would also allow the seller to distribute free samples after a first purchase or during promotions or various events, also by mail, in order to generate further future purchases. The seller could thus validate the client's provisional choice, illustrate the description made thereof by tasting, introduce unknown or unjustly underrated wines, improve the sale of a wine the seller wants to promote or destock, or for example prove the proper conservation of a wine that one would tend to believe to be too old.
Other applications, such as for example using the ratings of wine critics, the training of oenologists, sommeliers and others involved in the selling or tasting of wine or simply amateurs, can also be cited.
Finally, such samples could also satisfy people who want to consume a small amount of wine, a glass, for example, and who are often reluctant to open a bottle for that reason only, knowing that the remaining content is likely to spoil. The availability of samples for these people, the content of which preferably corresponds to a glass of wine, thus makes it possible, for example, to occasionally please a solitary consumer or other guests wishing to choose different wines according to their personal tastes.
For all these reasons, it would be very advantageous and particularly desirable to have a device and an automated sampling method that make it possible to decant the contents of one or several bottles of wine or other alcoholic beverage into several smaller hermetically sealed containers.
However, in order to retain this advantageous character, it is highly preferable that the decanted wine or other alcoholic beverage does not suffer any degradation of the organoleptic properties thereof during sampling. Indeed, as already explained above, alcoholic beverages, including wine, are particularly sensitive to the presence of oxygen.
Even though some wine sampling devices are known in the prior art, none of them make it possible to fully perform the process of decanting and sampling without there being contact between the wine and the oxygen in the ambient air. Generally, in the prior art, the wine bottle to be sampled is first uncorked outdoors before being fitted within a device and receiving a sealing stopper through which the wine is drawn. Similarly, in the prior art, contact between the air and wine is possible during the step of closing the sampling tubes, which does not take place within a confined space under an inert atmosphere. This placing the wine in contact with the oxygen in ambient air during the sampling process may be the cause of damage to the wine, or at least an evolution of the wine contained within the tube that differs from that contained within the combined bottles of the one emptied in order to perform the sampling.
For example, document FR 2,987,041 discloses a wine repackaging device and method. The aim of this document is to repackage wine bottles that may be damaged, especially when the corks are likely to lose the original properties thereof. The aim is therefore to decant the wine into new containers wherein the capacity is identical to that of the initial bottles. This is not wine sampling. The bottles are not open, they are integrally placed within the device by virtue of a hatch and then broken before the wine is recovered and filtered. Thus, the wine is in contact with the broken bottle fragments. The filling of new bottles is performed externally to the device, thus making it possible to optimize the dimensions thereof.
Documents WO 2015/136,166 and WO 01/42087 disclose devices for sampling wine within glasses. These glasses can then be closed by means of lids, externally to the devices. Again, the wine is in contact with oxygen, at least between the filling of a glass and the placing of a lid thereupon.
In order to ensure the conservation of the sampled wine despite this contact with oxygen during the decanting process, it is recommended in the prior art to add sulfites to the wine contained within the bottle after having uncorked it and before transferring it to the sampling device. While this allows for better conservation of the wine within the samples, the addition of sulfur is particularly disadvantageous insofar as it is inconvenient for a number of consumers, it is incompatible with some types of wines (particularly wines made without added sulfites, known as wine without sulfur) and may denature the organoleptic properties of the wine contained within the sample, which is found to be modified with respect to the original wine contained within the bottle.